Fox television executives celebrated with high fives when this year’s Super Bowl sold out in October, commanding ad rates that seemed to defy gravity. (Commercial slots in the Feb. 6 game sold for $3 million apiece.) But wait a minute: Wasn’t the 30-second television spot meant to be dead and buried? This is 2011 after all, a time when Google, smartphones and social media sites are making big-brand TV ads seem as dated as Duran Duran and shoulder pads in women’s suits.

Despite the new media onslaught, the Super Bowl has reinvented itself to be even more relevant and valuable as an advertising platform for today’s marketers. Mercedes Benz and Best Buy are entering the Super Bowl for the first time this year. Perennial Super Bowl advertiser Pepsi, which made a big splash last year by forgoing its regular slots in favor of a social media style philanthropy campaign–its Pepsi Refresh Project–is returning. And while Google last year surprised everyone with its Parisian Love spot, 2011’s digital media darling is deals site Groupon. The latter announced Wednesday that it was taking out an actual Super Bowl–and not pre-game–ad buy, as was originally intended.

It used to be that the Super Bowl was considered a “vanity buy” by many marketers. Big-budget ads and highly creative productions were part of an agency’s showcase for creative awards and brownie points for a CMO’s résumé. But the recession has all but extinguished such luxuries with marketers looking beyond a mention on USA Today’s annual Super Bowl Ad Meter. Yet advertisers are putting the Super Bowl back at the top of their buy list.

Mom may discourage her kids from snacking between meals, but “snacking” is mommy’s M.O. when it comes to Facebook. Two recent surveys confirmed what we’d guessed: the key to engaging the half a million+ moms who “like” us on Facebook is tasty, bite-size content morsels served up directly in their Facebook News Feed.

Moms are busy. Moms are wicked busy. An overwhelming 73% of survey respondents said that they “consume” Facebook content in quick bursts — less than 15 minutes up to 30 minutes. Seventy percent of moms use the social network primarily to keep in touch with family and friends. With an average of 100 friends in her network, Mom has to power through her news feed. As one of our moms explains, “My whole day is 10-minute bursts. I check in on Facebook before school pick ups, while making dinner, whenever I’ve get a free minute.”

Great insight into moms social media use and how to get to them by the editor and publisher of FansofbeingaMom.com

The automotive category is consistently among the biggest, most competitive and innovative media spenders. While automotive manufacturers typically focus on model-led advertising, both BMW and Audi put a much stronger emphasis on their brands.

Unilever’s Axe and Procter & Gamble’s Old Spice have played more than their fair share of one-on-one ball in recent times. Axe has delivered some irreverent and sometimes controversial campaigns over the years, while Old Spice has rejuvenated the brand to make it more relevant to a younger user. Here, we check out their form and stats across both media plans.

Product launches for Activision’s “Guitar Hero 5” and MTV Games’ “The Beatles: Rock Band” last September became a high-stakes marketing strum-off. After some amazing growth in earlier years that saw the console, portable and PC game software industry reach its high score in 2008, sales declined 11% in 2009. These two marketers showed off a combination of skillful hammer-on and pull-off maneuvers in media to bring their products to market. We decided to evaluate each brand’s media strategy.